Therapeutic treatment regimens for disorders such as HIV-1 infection (acquired immune deficiency syndrome or AIDS) and cancer are increasingly complex. New data and new therapeutic treatment regimens continue to modify the treatments available, and it is difficult for all but the specialist to remain current on the latest treatment information. Further, even those who are current on the latest treatment information require time to assimilate that information and understand how it relates to other treatment information in order to provide the best available treatment for a patient. Combination therapeutic treatment regimens exacerbate this problem by making potential drug interactions even more complex. Finally, an increasingly sophisticated patient population, in the face of a vast volume of consumer information on the treatment of disease, makes the mere statement of a treatment regime, without explanation, difficult for the patient to accept.
R. Miller et al., Summary Recommendations for Responsible Monitoring and Regulation of Clinical Software Systems, Ann. Intern. Med. 127, 842-845 (1997), describes policy guidelines indicating the desirability of systems that generate advice for clinician users in a manner that users can easily override. Solutions to this need are neither suggested nor disclosed.
M. Pazzani et al., Application of an Expert System in the Management of HIV-Infected Patients, J. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology 15, 356-362 (1997) (accepted May 12, 1997), describes a rule-based expert system by which protease, reverse transcriptase, and integrase segments of HIV are cloned and entered into an expert system that recommends two, three, and four drug regimens. A means for easily overriding the advice given is neither suggested nor disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,672,154 to Sillen describes a method for giving patients individualized, situation-dependent medication advice. The recommended type of medicine may include at least two different medicines. No means for ranking multiple treatment options is disclosed, and no means for explaining why treatment options were rejected is given. Rather, this system is primarily concerned with generating new rules from patient information to optimize a particular therapy for diseases such as Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and abnormal blood pressure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,950 to McMichael describes a method and system for use in treating a patient with immunosuppressants such as cyclosporin. An expert system is employed to generate a recommendation on whether the immunosuppressant dosage should be changed and, if so, how. Ranking or selection among a plurality of different combination therapeutic treatment regimens is not suggested.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,638 to Iliff describes a medical diagnostic system that provides medical advice to the general public over a telephone network. This system is not concerned with generating a recommendation for a combination therapeutic treatment regimen for a known disease (see also U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,176 to Iliff).